From what the dude has written, I'd say he hardly has any idea what he's talking for better part of the review. And in the end he says that the video quality on S9 is second to iPod Touch & shows a picture of iPod Touch & S9 with videos on their screen & says that iPod's screen is a bit more crisper & shows better than S9. Anyone can say he's blind after looking at the accompanying photo, the iPod (at top) has much poorer screen than the one S9 is showing!

And I just wonder where do these people keep their brains when reviewing stuff about which ofcourse they dont have any idea!

See how his iPod is in a case? He owns that, or has had it for some time, and probasbly uses it frequently. I would guess he is comfortable as an iPod user and can't stand the thought that he was wrong in his purchase and should have bought a superior product.

LOL. in all fairness, his review was pretty fair for the most parts...

funny thing is that he had a pic of iPod touch and S9, with a washed out movie playing on the touch, and a super crisp soccer game on the S9 then in the sentence right below say that the Touch is better...

We can't change anything.. I'm just proud to be an owner of a S9!
Ipods are for the crowd. I really don't care for them. Now I know I'll never ever buy anything of apple. It's just a shame that "the crowd" is supporting apple.

With the exception of the video appearance on the iPod's screen(the S9's is so much crisper, etc), I'd say it was a very favorable and spot on review. Even then, he goes on to praise the S9. I was expecting so many off topic points, but it's a pretty solid review.

BTW: This guy runs a Touch centric site, so he did a very unbiased review. Any reviewer who can do that, and own iPod, is an excellent journalist. Props goes to him IMO.

With the exception of the video appearance on the iPod's screen(the S9's is so much crisper, etc), I'd say it was a very favorable and spot on review. Even then, he goes on to praise the S9. I was expecting so many off topic points, but it's a pretty solid review.

Yes, I don't refute that point, in most parts he did give S9 due praise but small things like this makes one feel if the guy is for real or some Apple fanboy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

BTW: This guy runs a Touch centric site, so he did a very unbiased review. Any reviewer who can do that, and own iPod, is an excellent journalist. Props goes to him IMO.

You should read this site regularly, then you would get a better picture. These guys a lot of times suck up to iPhone & diss Windows Mobile when its not deserved. I've them in my feed reader, so I know how stuff goes up there regularly!

With the exception of the video appearance on the iPod's screen(the S9's is so much crisper, etc), I'd say it was a very favorable and spot on review. Even then, he goes on to praise the S9. I was expecting so many off topic points, but it's a pretty solid review.

BTW: This guy runs a Touch centric site, so he did a very unbiased review. Any reviewer who can do that, and own iPod, is an excellent journalist. Props goes to him IMO.

It becomes clear early in the review that this "journalist" has gotten used to the UI of the Touch to where it has become his "comfortable" UI.
So when he takes a player with a different UI and compares it, he starts with the premise that the Touch is "best", and so anything different about the other product (S9) isn't "as good".

The reviewer sets the tone early when he says: "There is nothing to see on the sides and back (of the S9) (well, in fairness, there is a microphone and reset button on the back, but they are really not much to see). But while we are looking around, check out the unique shape and sleek design of this player."
He uses the phrase "well, in fairness" as a derogatory descriptor, as if the nicely simply and clean design of the S9 were somehow a negative.

What's interesting is that even with the reviewer's bias, the S9 still comes out very good in his review in spite of his bias.
I've read lots of reviews of lots of products, and I've gotten pretty good at cutting through the reviewers bias and BS (some are actually paid to review a certain way), and if you look at the specifics of what he says and discard the obviously biased parts, it looks to me that the S9 comes out on top.
And yea, I really like the part where he says the display of the Touch is "better" and then proves himself wrong by actually showing both of them together.

No player can possibly be the "best" one because there are too many personally preferential features that one person might like over others.
The main point of this reviewer's article was for him to point out his preference for the Touch (because of his familiarity with it) more than anything else.

JonathanC, I hope this brings in a little more maturity for you.

__________________
Mark

Ogg and Flac or I don't listen, and the Cowon X5L and S9 do it best for me.

How Blind can People Be? Completely. And depending on the age of a sighted person, they may not even realize their vision has degraded from early cataracts. Then of course the glasses wearers don't always keep their glasses clean.

So I take opinions based on visual acuity lightly. Even poor lighting conditions will screw with visual perception.

With the exception of the video appearance on the iPod's screen(the S9's is so much crisper, etc), I'd say it was a very favorable and spot on review. Even then, he goes on to praise the S9. I was expecting so many off topic points, but it's a pretty solid review.

BTW: This guy runs a Touch centric site, so he did a very unbiased review. Any reviewer who can do that, and own iPod, is an excellent journalist. Props goes to him IMO.

I don’t man…there are a few things in this review that would probably make me look elsewhere for a more professional opinion.

I’ll start with this quote:

“But first, the sound quality. I tested this media player alongside the Zune 16, which has become my gold standard for sound quality.”

“The Cowon really held pace with my Zune 16 almost step for step. I will say that the Zune seems to have a more powerful amplifier in there, but otherwise, the sound quality was fantastic.”

Ok now I’m in no way saying that the Zune does not sound good but I’m sorry…there is no Zune that sounds as good as the S9. I have listened to a Zune 120 just recently and while it sounded good…it’s just not Cowon. That said there is always room for taste I guess…

Another quote:

“Additionally, unless you buy digital videos online, it is far more complicated to rip a DVD than a CD. Trust me, this is not for the faint of heart. Third, even if you know all of the correct settings, this is a long process. It takes the full run time of the DVD to rip it onto your computer (generally 90-120 minutes) and then another 10 minutes to copy it to your portable device. This all seems like an awful lot of work to watch a video on a tiny (in this case, 3.3 inches) screen. Especially when I could just pop the DVD into my DVD player and watch it in 56-inches within seconds. OK, so, let’s say you do figure out the correct codecs, formatting, and other settings, and finally get the videos loaded onto your Cowon S9,”

This whole quote is flawed imo. I know VERY little about video formats and whatnot and I have never had an issue with ripping a DVD and converting it to play on the S9. I ripped Gladiator and had it on my S9 in no time and it looked and played fantastic and it took all of about 30 minutes of research to learn how to do it. As far as the time it takes….so what? You put it in the pc and let it run while you’re eating dinner or something, I don’t understand the complaints here at all. And to top it off he says it’s a lot of work when you can watch a movie on a 56” tv? Well no crap, obviously you’re not going to watch it on the S9 if you have a DVD player and 56” tv handy. He’s missing the whole point here. And really if converting video is that difficult for him, he probably shouldn’t be doing these types of reviews anyway in my opinion.

Then this quote:

“The iPod Touch is a little larger and a little bit crisper, but the Cowon S9 is the first media player to offer a screen that even comes close to competing with the iPod Touch screen. The sound quality was exquisite, the video was crisp and clear…second only to the iPod Touch.”

I’m not even going to comment on this one.

I don’t know…I just don’t think I would consider his review for a future purchases.

I ripped Gladiator and had it on my S9 in no time and it looked and played fantastic and it took all of about 30 minutes of research to learn how to do it. As far as the time it takes….so what? You put it in the pc and let it run while you’re eating dinner or something, I don’t understand the complaints here at all.

Tell you what, I usually don't rip my DVDs as I didn't have much use for it anyways earlier. But a week or so ago I ripped Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon DVD & it took just a bit over 1 hour & its a 3+ hour movie. This guy definitely isn't tech minded if he says that it takes a whole movie's duration when ripping - it all depends on your hardware
fast processor + more free RAM + fast HDD = less ripping time

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blahaha

And to top it off he says it’s a lot of work when you can watch a movie on a 56” tv? Well no crap, obviously you’re not going to watch it on the S9 if you have a DVD player and 56” tv handy. He’s missing the whole point here. And really if converting video is that difficult for him, he probably shouldn’t be doing these types of reviews anyway in my opinion.

Heh, that made me laugh quite a bit. Perhaps he can lug around his 56" TV & DVD player but for us lesser mortals that ain't possible! Question for him would be that why is he bothering with a PMP anyways, why not just play CDs of music on his home-theater or super stereo or PC instead! They'll sound better than S9 any day, eh! And what he's forgetting is that videos need to be converted for iPod as well since iPod doesn't play anything but Apple's own formats, eh!